This invention relates to cases for storing and displaying retail sale articles, and more particularly relates to a construction for displaying and securely storing a variety of cutlery to be sold in a retail sales outlet.
Modern retail stores, particularly small specialty retail outlets, typically have limited space and limited resources for the production and use of display materials. Accordingly, such marketing and display materials are often developed and prepared by the manufacturers or distributors of the items sold in the retail outlets. Nevertheless, retail outlets are still faced with problems involving storage of retail stock, security of the stock and displayed items against theft, and limited space for displays.
The storage and display problems faced by retail outlets are particularly acute when the merchandise to be stocked and displayed consists of cutlery and related items having sharp edges and points. Such merchandise must be displayed and handled with special care, so that neither customers nor employees of the retail establishment suffer injuries. Customers must also have an unobstructed view of the entire selection of cutlery, and must be able to handle sample items of cutlery easily and safely. Moreover, the nondisplayed stock ideally should be stored within easy reach of the displayed stock, so that customers are not inconvenienced by long delays and excessive searching by stock clerks for the chosen item, after the customer has made his slection.
In the prior art, cutlery merchandise has been displayed separately from its storage, and in ways that are inconvenient to potential customers. To minimize the chance of injury to customers, displayed cutlery merchandise is often individually wrapped, or permanently mounted on a display board. Occasionally, displayed cutlery is placed in a knifeblock, preventing that cutlery from being viewed in its entirety without being withdrawn from the block. Knifeblocks also allow only a limited slection of cutlery to be displayed because the knifeblock slots are typically provided in onely a few sizes, and unusual items, such as sharpening tools, cannot normally be placed within a knifeblock. Permanent mountings of knives, or individual wrapping of cutlery, allows display of entire cutlery items, and provides for greater safety of the customer, but does not allow a customer to individually handle each item of cutlery if he so chooses.
Storage of retail cutlery merchandise has also presented problems in the past. Such items are normally produced in a wide variety of configurations, and are sold along with support items, such as sharpening tools, that take on shapes and configurations greatly different from cutlery. Storage of such a variety presents difficulties, both in minimizing the space occupied by the storage, and in preventing injury from sharp cutlery implements. Storage of cutlery in boxes, storage in knifeblocks, and storage of cutlery by hanging it by hooks, all present difficulties, because those methods have limited flexibility, complexity, lack of versatility, and limited safety.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a compact merchandise display case with an integral storage feature.
Another object of this invention is to provide a cutlery display case with a simple system for removably displaying cutlery items.
A further object of this invention is to provide a display mechanism in a display case that is adaptable to a variety of cutlery items, and to a variety of display configurations.
Another object of this invention is to provide a cutlery display case that safely displays cutlery items while allowing individual items of cutlery to be handled and evaluated by potential customers.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a cutlery display case with an integral stock storage adaptable to a variety of cutlery configurations and merchandise storage positions.
A further object of this invention is to provide a merchandise display and storage case with a secure means of storing the stock of cutlery merchandise.
Another object of this invention is to provide a cutlery storage and display case capable of providing information regarding the cutlery displayed and stored.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a merchandise display and storage case capable of storing and displaying a variable mix of stock and displayed cutlery.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a merchandise display and storage case having a single support structure adaptable to a variety of cutlery.